Men's Shed Shadow Boxes for Museum

The Silver Star Mountain Museum is a satellite of the Vernon Museum and Archives. In collaboration with the museum and the Silver Star Resort, the enthusiastic volunteers seek to perpetuate the rich history of Silver Star Mountain.

One of the ambitious projects that the museum team is embarking on is to convert the fire lookout station at the Silver Star Summit to it's original build appearance. They have visited a number of regional observation lookouts to compile a better understanding of the original appearance and use of these vital stations, and how they operated.

One of the first projects is to inform visitors of the history and importance of the location. That involves installing two outward facing window shadow boxes to inform visitors. Each box will sit on a window ledge inside the lookout. The box can be accessed from inside to mount displays and signage on the lookout history and the changes to come.

Men's Shed Vernon was asked to build these two boxes. One for a larger window, and one for the smaller windows shown here. Patti also asked that the boxes look aged to match the times.

This was a great fit for Men's Shed, as we had just formed a relationship with our regional district to recycle wood for new projects. It often means taking the long way.

Wally and Ray glued and clamped reject cedar shakes into boards,

Then we planed them to a uniform thickness, trimmed them, and joined them together. Finally, we finished them with our own "secret ageing sauce" and assembled the boxes...

Add some shelves and hardware and you have a tool for telling a story of what has been, and what will be at the fire lookout station.

Men's Shed project "Point Man" Ray Verlage says that this was a stretching experience to build a cabinet for the first time.

"Without this unique organization, I would not have had this opportunity to learn from, and work side by side with these talented guys, and to be able to give back to my city", says Ray.

Men's Shed is looking forward to more opportunities to work with the Silver Star Mountain Museum on this project.